Casa Ilongga (Dumaguete)

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BUSINESSMAN Raffy Uytiepo never thought that the family would still succeed in business after their gasoline hauling venture was hurt by the oil crisis in the 1970’s.

But hard work, determination and a meager investment of P50,000 left from their last undertaking allowed the family to open Casa Ilongga, which names Iloilo’s La Paz batchoy as its best-seller.

The Uytiepos migrated to Manila and with barely enough money, opened a four-table eatery at the ground floor of an old Spanish ancestral house in Malate, which they had turned into a boarding house.

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“The boarders instantly became our first customers,” Uytiepo said, who is Casa Ilongga’s president and chief executive officer.

The family served the all-time favorite La Paz batchoy, a noodle soup garnished with pork innards, crushed pork cracklings, and vegetables topped with raw egg, exclusively
for them. They named their business Casa (home) Ilongga (a female resident of Iloilo).

Through word of mouth, the small eatery soon became popular, prompting the Uytiepos to open a full-blown restaurant in Vito Cruz Extension in Makati City. Apart from serving La Paz Batchoy, Casa Ilongga started serving Ilonggo specialties such as pancit molo, chicken inasal, kanse, kadios-baboy-langka (KBL), and dinuguan with manapla puto.

“The restaurant really draws a lot of customers. We serve across markets- yuppies, professionals and families. In fact, due to the limited parking space, we learned that cars of our customers were sometimes towed,” he said.